Contents

Life

Remigius was born, traditionally, at Cerny-en-Laonnois, near Laon, Picardy, into the highest
levels of Gallo-Roman society. He is said to
have been son of Emilius, count of Laon (who is not otherwise attested) and of
Celina, daughter of the Bishop of Soissons, which Clovis had conquered in 486. He studied at Reims and soon became so
noted for his learning and sanctity, and his high status, that he was elected Bishop of Reims in his 22nd year, though still a layman.[3]

The story of the return of the sacred vessels (most
notably the Vase of Soissons), which had been stolen
from the church of Soissons, testifies to the friendly relations existing
between him and Clovis, King of the Franks, who he converted to Christianity
with the assistance of Saint
Vedast (Vedastus, Vaast, Waast) and Saint Clotilde, the Burgundian princess who was wife to
Clovis. Even before he embraced Christianity, Clovis had showered benefits upon
Remigius and the Christians of Reims, and after his victory over the Alamanni in the battle of Tolbiac (probably 496), he
requested Remigius to baptize him at Reims (December 24, 496) in the presence
of a large company of Franks and Alamanni: according to Saint Gregory of Tours, 3,000 Franks were baptized with Clovis.[4]

King Clovis granted Remigius stretches of territory, in
which Remigius established and endowed many churches. He erected bishoprics at Tournai; Cambrai; Thérouanne, where he personally ordained the first bishop in 499; Arras,
where he installed St. Vedast; and Laon, which he gave to his niece's husband
Gunband. In 530 he consecrated Medardus, Bishop of Noyon. Remigius' brother
Principius was Bishop of Soissons and also corresponded with Sidonius Apollinaris, whose letters give a sense of the highly cultivated courtly literary
Gallo-Roman style all three men shared.[5]

The chroniclers of "Gallia Christiana" record that numerous donations were made to Remigius by the Frankish
nobles, which he presented to the cathedral at Reims.

Though Remigius never attended any of the church
councils, in 517 he held a synod at Reims, at which after a heated discussion
he converted a bishop of Arian views. Although St Remigius's influence over people and prelates was
extraordinary, upon one occasion his condoning of the offences of one Claudius,
a priest whom Remigius had consecrated, brought upon him the rebukes of his
episcopal brethren, who deemed Claudius deserving of degradation. The reply of
Remigius, still extant, is able and convincing.

Few authentic works of Remigius remain: his "Declamations"
were elaborately admired by Sidonius Apollinaris, in a finely turned letter to
Remigius, but are now lost.[6] Four letters survive: one
containing his defence in the matter of Claudius, two written to Clovis, and a
fourth to Bishop Falco of Tongeren. The "Testament of St. Remigius" is apocryphal. A brief
and strictly legendary "Vita" was formerly ascribed to Venantius Fortunatus. Another, according to Jacobus de Voragine, was written by Ignatius,
bishop of Reims.[7] A letter congratulating Pope Hormisdas upon his election (523) is apocryphal, and "the letter in which Pope
Hormisdas appears to have appointed him vicar of the kingdom of Clovis is
proved to be spurious; it is presumed to have been an attempt of Hincmar to
base his pretensions for the elevation of Reims to the primacy, following the
alleged precedent of Remigius."[8]

A Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (edited
Villalpandus, 1699) is not his work, but that of Remigius of Auxerre.[9]

Late Carolingian ivory
binding, c. 870, with miracles from the life of St Remi. Top: The dying pagan
asks Saint Remi for baptism, Centre: the Hand of God fills the two vials, Bottom: the dove of the Holy spirit delivering
the Sainte Ampoule at the
Baptism of Clovis. The plaque manages to cover two versions of the story.

There was an early legend associated with St. Remigius
known as the Legend of the Baptism of Moribund Pagan, according to which a
dying pagan asked for baptism at the hands of St. Remigius, but when it was
found that there was no Oil of the Catechumens or sacred Chrism available for
the proper administration of the baptismal ceremony, St. Remigius ordered two
empty vials be placed on an altar and as he prayed before them the two vials
miraculously filled respectively with the necessary Oil of the Catechumens and
Chrism.

Apparently when the sepulcher containing the body of St.
Remi was opened in the reign of Charles the Bald and while Hincmar was the Archbishop
of Reims, two small vials were found, the contents of which gave off an
aromatic scent the likes of which was like nothing known to those present. If
one recalls that when St. Remigius died the ancient art of perfumery was still
known and practiced in the collapsing Roman Empire, but was unknown in the
Carolingian empire four hundred years later, these vials may have originally
simply have bottles of unguents used to cover the scent of decay of St.
Remigius’ corpse during his funeral, but the memory of the two vials
miraculously filled in the story of the Baptism of the Moribund Pagan and the
unusual, seemingly otherworldly scents issuing from these two vials found buried
with St. Remigius combined to suggest to those present that these two vials
were the miraculously filled vials of the legend.

It should be remembered as well that it was not uncommon
for chalices, patens and other sacred vessels to be buried with high ranking
clergymen.

Hincmar adroitly combined the discovery of (1) the two
vials (2) the Legend of the Moribund Pagan and (3) the historical memory that
St. Remigius had baptized Clovis, into the Legend of the Sainte Ampoule, (i.e. that the Chrism used by Remigius when he baptized Clovis was
miraculously supplied by heaven itself). Hincmar used the new Legend to
strengthen his claim that his own archepiscopal see of Reims (as the possessor
of this heavenly sent Chrism) should be recognized as the divinely chosen site
for all subsequent sacre/anointings of French kings. The fate of the second
vial is uncertain. It has been suggested that since in the original form of the
legend this would have been the vial containing the Oil of the Catechumens and
that the French coronation ordinals prescribe the Oil of the Catechumens,
rather than Chrism, for the anointing of queens, it was subsequently used for
anointing the queens of France[10] and it is possible that a
vial currently identified by some of the Bourbon Legitimists as the Sainte
Ampoulle is actually this second vial.

Lutheran

Presbyterian

About Me

Retired. Reformed and Presbyterian by background, but dedicated to the Anglican Prayerbook with degrees from Presbyterian and Episcopal seminaries. Informed by both traditions. Not giving up the 1662 BCP for the Presbyterians and not giving up the Westminster Standards for the Anglicans.